Early HIV symptoms missed

23rd July 2008

The National Aids Trust says that HIV is being spread because doctors overlook symptoms which could reveal the infection.

The charity suggested that as many as half of all early-stage infections, often marked by severe flu-like symptoms, are being missed and that spotting them and carrying out an HIV test would prevent further infections. There are about 7,000 new HIV infections in the UK a year with as many as half feared to be passed on by people who are in the early stages of their own infection.